Illegals Program

The Illegals Program was a network of Russian sleeper agents under non-official cover. The spies were planted in the United States by the Russian SVR intelligence service, and, while posing as ordinary citizens, they tried to build contacts with academics, industrialists, and policymakers to gain access to intelligence. In June 2010, ten spies (Anna Chapman, Mikhail A. Vasenkov, Vicky Pelaez, Andrey Bezrukov, Yelena Vavilova, Vladimir Guryev, Lidiya Guryeva, Mikhail Kutsik, Nataliya Pereverzeva, and Mikhail Semenko) were arrested by the US for spying, and they were deported on 13 July 2010 as a part of a US-Russia prisoner exchange.